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Devin (& Devin Desktop, formerly Windsurf) vs. IBM Bob

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Devin

    Score9.1 out of 10
    N/ADevin is an autonomous software engineering platform from Cognition that can plan, write, run, test, and review code for engineering teams. The current product includes cloud-based agent workflows and Devin Desktop, which Cognition describes as the new name for Windsurf and positions as an IDE for managing local and cloud agents from one editor surface.

    $20

    per month

    IBM Bob

    Score9.4 out of 10
    N/AIBM Bob is an AI-assisted development tool designed to support developers across the software development lifecycle. It helps interpret developer intent and provides assistance when working with real-world codebases by using contextual awareness of the surrounding project.N/A
    Pricing
    DevinIBM Bob
    Editions & Modules
    Pro
    $20
    per month
    Max
    $200
    per month
    Enterprise
    Contact Sales
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    DevinIBM Bob
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    DevinIBM Bob
    Considered Both Products
    Cognition AI, Inc.
    No answer on this topic
    IBM
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Would buy again
    12 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    11 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    12 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    7 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    10 Answers
    User Ratings
    DevinIBM Bob
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.8
    (14 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.7
    (14 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    DevinIBM Bob
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cognition AI, Inc.
    If you already have technical knowledge and understanding of coding, Windsurf could be a valuable platform to debug and rewrite code. It was helpful to me to expand coding, since I am not a traditionally programmer. I was able to enhance my base code and functionality much quicker than manually trying.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    The first time using it feels like magic. Its ability to analyze an existing codebase and adapt accordingly to questions, feature requests, issues, etc. is remarkable. However, it is not limited to an existing codebase - I've had it create new applications based on styling from another application from scratch. It has quickly gone from an amazing novelty to something that is relied upon daily.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Cognition AI, Inc.
    • Quick code isolation of sytax errors
    • quick suggestions on how to correct coding error
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    • Analyzing existing programs, explaining clearly what it does.
    • Rewriting programs in a more modern language and/or a much more modular design, adding lots of explanatory comments.
    • Analyzing large amounts of data, verifying assumptions are either true or false.
    • Improving my ability to write good prompts, by asking IBM Bob feedback about the prompt(s) I used.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Cognition AI, Inc.
    • Windsurf is target to more medium to advanced users
    • Windsurf does fast debugging, but technical skills are needed.
    • Windsurf is not as intuitive as I initially thought.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    • The setup of skills can be more simplified
    • since the IBM Bob IDE is embedded in a VSCode based framework, we have to deal with the same UI (and missing guided workflows)
    • The help pages are only available via URLs. I like to see an embedded help file which is structured and includes a search feature
    Read full review
    Usability
    Cognition AI, Inc.
    Windsurf is a good tool for developers with more than basic coding skills. I would recommend it as a tool to quickly mitigate coding errors and issues. I did not take a deeper dive into the integrated extensions, but the library of extensions appear to be solid. An experience developer could quickly launch this platform, scan and test coding, and resolve issues quickly. I did not test this for larger code sets.
    Incentivized
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    IBM
    It works well, for the most part, but asking for authorization for multiple steps or tool installation and use sometimes becomes bothersome. You can grant blanket authorizations but I do prefer to have a tradeoff there so not all is bad, but sometimes I get the impression that we get asked the same question several times during the same workflow.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Cognition AI, Inc.
    Windsurf would be more comparable to GitHub Copilot or Perplexity to me. I think it's more of a pure code debugging line by line than some of the other tools listed above, however, they all have some capabilities to rewrite and test new coding. It boils down to what toolset you are most comfortable with. I typically will work with two platforms with the same issue to see how it is approached and the differences.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    ChatGPT just did not have the breadth and depth of insight for my coding needs. To get an approximation of what I wanted I had to restate my prompt multiple times, and it looked almost like it did not learn from one time to the other.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Cognition AI, Inc.
    • ROI is significant time saved from debugging, rewriting code, and testing
    • AI generated development can test executable code in a controlled environment
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    • The ROI from converting our Installer app went from an initial estimate of 2 weeks to 3 days.
    • The testing of the finalized app, which had to communicate with an already existing app w, was difficult to implement and test.
    • Converting old scripts from a proprietary IDE was done instantly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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